Construction supervisor gets jail for kickbacks and attack

A construction company supervisor who extorted kickbacks and gave an employee the go ahead to assault someone critical of his work at a New Jersey military base has been sentenced to prison.

Prosecutors said 40-year-old Richard Cottone, of Windsor, Pennsylvania, demanded kickbacks from workers’ weekly paychecks at Joint Base-McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst between November 2009 and September 2010.

Cottone pleaded guilty in 2012. His father-in-law, company owner Leonard Santos, of Yardley, pleaded guilty in April 2014 and is awaiting sentencing.

Cottone also pleaded guilty to recruiting someone to attack a site manager who was routinely critical of Sands Mechanicals’ employees’ work.

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Prosecutors say the site manager suffered multiple serious injuries when he was run down while riding his bike.

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